Last night in Business English we encountered a new word. It was new to me and to many of the participants.

The word was phablet which is constructed from PHone and tABLET

In English this process of using two parts of words to make a new word is called making a portmanteau word

The word portmanteau to describe these words was coined by Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking Glass where the catepiller explains to Alice that these words are:

‘You see it’s like a portmanteau—there are two meanings packed up into one word.’

The most famous source of these types of words is the nonsense poem called the Jabberwocky

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Here is a YouTube video of someone reading this poem: